Saddell Castle, formerly home to the Campbells of Saddell

To commemorate and honour the 274th anniversary of the Battle of Culloden, I thought I’d share some resources for researching Jacobite ancestors, some of these you will know from this blog’s resource page, and some are new. A Brief History: The Battle of Culloden was fought on 16 April 1746 between the Jacobites, a […]

Hello everyone, I hope you are having a great start to the year! One of the really important parts of researching is keeping your facts neat and tidy, here are five tips to make your researching easier! 1. Save immediately: When I find a record, certificate or fact about an ancestor that I am […]

It isn’t always easy to trace your family tree in Australia back to the “motherland”, but I’m here to help! Here are some tips: Google the surname: A quick google of your family surname instantly gives you an idea of where your family came from. Try to avoid websites like Wikipedia others similar that […]

Highland dress is a fascinating subject and one of my favourites. In these four blog posts I will be explaining the different kinds of Highland dress worn by women, men and children, but for now, let’s have a quick look at how tartan was made. Clan Tartan: Individual clan tartans were not officially in use […]

A trick that has really helped me with filling in the gaps is this: go by the nephews and nieces names. You see, Scotland used to have a strict naming tradition, explained in this blog post here As you can see, children were often named after their aunts and uncles, so if you have one ancestor, […]

A question that came up for me recently was why did my 4th great grandfather John Campbell Colquhoun leave his relatives and hometown in Paisley, Renfrewshire to immigrate to Australia in 1857? Coincidentally a few days later I was listening to a podcast episode about the Highland Clearances, and the academic speaking on the podcast […]

Free trials are a great way to see if a genealogy platform is right for you, since some websites and resources can have very expensive monthly or yearly fees. They can also be wonderful if you are searching for an elusive ancestor that turned up crickets and tumbleweeds on other websites. But how […]

Unbeknownst to many, Scotland has many interesting and unique flags, some dating back centuries, and some quite recent. The third in this three-part mini series of blog posts about Scotland, I will explain some of the different flags of Scotland, their meanings and a brief history. Enjoy! 1. The Saltire: Possibly the most iconic […]

As part of a mini blog series, I am explaining some of the basic facts about Scotland in three blog posts; a Profile of Scotland, The Anthems of Scotland and the Flags of Scotland. Enjoy! There are many popular songs in Scotland, some dating back to the 1300’s or earlier! In this blog post I will […]

It can be very hard to piece together from various websites and sources what are the actual basic facts about Scotland, so in these three blog posts I will be explaining the Songs of Scotland and the Flags of Scotland, along with this blog post: A Profile of Scotland; Scotland: […]